POLITICS OF PAROLE: DAVIS IS RIGID AND WRONG ON PAROLE

Gov. Pete Wilson was extreme when it came to parole.

He appointed a Board of Prison Terms dominated by ex-cops who almost never
granted parole.

In his first 10 months in office, Gov. Gray Davis has shown himself even
more extreme and unjust.

In a recent article, the Los Angeles Times reports that of 1,489 hearings
held since Davis took office, the board has granted parole only 13 times.
The governor revoked eight of those paroles outright and returned the five
others to the board for reconsideration. Nudged by Davis, the board
promptly reversed itself.

Most California inmates serve a fixed term. When their sentences are
completed, by law they must be released.

Only inmates serving life with the possibility of parole go before the
Board of Prison Terms, whose members then decide whether they are suitable
for release.

A 1988 initiative gave the governor authority to rescind paroles granted by
the board. Some inmates seeking parole are dangerous criminals -- the
Charles Mansons of the world who should never be released.

But a significant number committed youthful indiscretions. They may have
been part of a botched robbery during which their crime partner shot the
victim or a battered wife who shot her abusive husband in a fit of rage.

The board and the governor have denied paroles for inmates who fit those
profiles, people prison authorities say pose no threat whatever to society,
inmates who've maintained unblemished records for years behind bars, who've
undergone counseling, earned college degrees, mastered trades and have jobs
waiting for them on the outside.

Even when police who arrested them, district attorneys who prosecuted them,
judges who presided over their trials and -- most tellingly -- even the
victims have urged an inmate's release, the board and the governor have
denied parole. The people being denied the opportunity to make good on a
second chance are human beings.

A mindless parole policy that denies all mercy may provide good copy in a
tough-on-crime TV ad in some future presidential run, but it's wrong.